Letter from a 'Friend'
by Auntieoaty
Summary: Walt receives a surprising letter from the last person he would have expected.
1. Letter from a 'Friend'

**A Letter from a 'Friend'**

I walked in and Ruby handed me an envelope with 'Sheriff' scrawled across the front, in an unfamiliar hand. "Good morning, Walt."

"Mornin' Ruby. What's this?"

"I don't know. It was on the floor when I opened up this morning."

"Okay. Anything else for me today?"

"No, not yet." She smiled warmly and then a hint a mischief crossed her features, "But you'll be the first I tell when there is."

I blinked as much at the mildly sarcastic tone as I did at her words, "You've been spending too much time around Vic."

She laughed at me. Ruby, she genuinely laughed and I started to think something more was going on; she was in cahoots with someone I could feel it. I angled my head to give her my best cautionary stare but she just smiled sweetly, reading my thoughts perfectly, and said, "Walter, there is nothing else. Nothing at all. You're just so serious all the time lately; I thought I would try to get you to lighten up some."

It's wasn't a condemnation or chastisement; just an honest statement. So, I gave her an honest reply, "I'll try to work on that."

Her smile deepened, "Good, because I miss you." Her words were simple but her meaning clear and profound.

I swallowed the unexpected lump in my throat and managed a small smile in return. "Thank you Ruby."

She held my eyes for a moment and I let her, I could tell she saw I understood her completely.  
I turned for my office and then remembered to ask, "No troops?"

I glanced back over my shoulder and her overly patient expression said she was about to indulge my forgetfulness. "Ferg's annual physical is this morning. Branch is at the Dentist. And Vic is..." The deputy in question walked in and set a box on the dispatcher's desk. Ruby amended the statement, "_was_ getting the office letter head order for me." Looking at Vic she added, "Thank you."

"Anytime Ruby." Vic waggled her eyebrows at Ruby and gave her a slightly wicked smile, "They've got some delicious new eye candy working for them."

Ruby laughed at Vic and I told myself to smile but I know it didn't happen. I settled for shaking my head at them and started for my office, as an afterthought, I decided to remind Vic of my presence, "Mornin' Vic."

She turned and was almost directly in front of me, her smile was utterly captivating, she must have still been thinking about the 'eye candy'. The smile had fully reached her eyes; lucky guy.

"Good morning, Walt." Her voice held an almost sing song quality.

Vic and sing song; not two things I would ordinarily think of going together. I nodded and stepped past her, once again, headed for coffee and my office. I sat the envelope face down next to the coffee pot as I picked up a mug and the carafe. Vic stepped up behind me; so close I could feel her body heat against my pant leg. Her hand gently brushed my back as she reached around my arm to pick up her Philly Flyers mug. I turned slightly and brought the carafe up to fill her cup too.

"Thanks."

"Yep." I slipped the carafe back onto the heat plate and stepped away.

"You forgot this."

I looked over my shoulder and saw the envelope in her hand. I did forget it, completely. The moment her hand touched my back, in that familiar way, all I could think about was her touch. My hand reached out automatically and grasped the paper. "I did thanks."

I opened the door and walked to my desk, set my coffee down, and then slit the envelope open, and pulled the single sheet out. When I dropped the envelope on the desk it landed face up. As I turned the page upright I rounded the back of my desk. My eyes landed on the signature at the same time my butt landed in my chair. Sean. Sean? Why would Sean write to _me_? I sighed because there was only one way to find out. I glanced at my open door and saw Vic's head bent over some files. For a brief moment I considered getting up and closing the door, but I began to read instead.

_Sheriff,_

_I suppose after all that's gone on I should probably just call you Walt. I know that when you said I had nothing to worry about from you, you meant that. You are a man of honor so I have no doubt that you never kissed or slept with Vic while she was my wife.__  
__There are a few things I thought you should know though. The first of which is that if you two have not gotten together yet I'm afraid you, Walt, are not as smart as I thought you were.__  
__Vic and I both knew we were drifting apart before we ever got to Wyoming. We tried to keep our marriage together but in reality we just weren't right for each other. I get that and I don't fault either of us anymore. __  
__The primary reason I'm writing is to let you know about something that happened while we were being held by those survival extremists. Something I doubt Vic's told you, especially if the two of you have not gotten together. And if you haven't gotten together, that's all the more reason why I should tell you. __  
__We were in the basement when they threw a body bag down. Vic was so scared that it might be you. She scrambled across the floor and clawed at the bag. Vic let out this deep frantic scream while she struggled to get the bag open. That scream was like an exclamation point to her emotions in that moment. That's when I saw for the first time, that while there was nothing physically going on between the two of you, Vic was already in love with you.__Like I said we'd been drifting apart long before we got to Wyoming, but I think that was the moment that I knew for sure that I'd lost my wife.__  
__Thanks to you neither of us lost our lives._

_When Gorski left us, Vic made a choice. I could have chalked up the reaction to the body bag as just being scared and thinking our last hope of getting out alive was dead in that bag. However, her choice to leave me in the backseat of that nutjob's car, without a word about my condition or safety, to run back to you; told me I was not mistaken in that cellar. Vic cared more for you than she did for me. This is not bitterness talking, just stating the facts of what I saw._

_The fact that Vic stayed at the hospital to make sure you were alright, even after I'd been released, was merely another point of proof that Vic had to be sure you were alright before anything else. I knew my wellbeing came in a distant second to you and always would; I just had to accept it.__  
__The last thing I wanted to tell you is I was pretty sure when I told Vic she had to quit her job that she wouldn't. I know as much as we fought to keep our marriage together she would never turn her back on you; she could never leave you. So at the end of the two weeks I filed for divorce because I knew part of Vic still had some feelings for me. She would never leave our marriage but we had to let it go.__I don't fault any of us and I hope that neither of you do either. __  
__I know Vic is in love with you and if you feel for her the way I think you do, I hope you've already done some about it but if you haven't, you need to talk to her today.__  
__Good luck to you both from Down Under, Sean_

_p.s. this will have been sent to a friend of mine who dropped it by your office for me. I didn't want Vic to throw it out when she saw the return address. _

When I finished the letter I looked out to Vic's desk again but found her standing in my doorway; she had been watching me read. How long? I had no idea. How was I going to deal with the letter and the information it contained? I didn't know that either. But I did know it wouldn't be for other's to hear. "Come in Vic, close the door."

She did as I asked and stepped up to the guest chair on the other side of my desk. As she started to sit in the chair her eyes crossed my desk and landed on the envelope. She halted her actions, hovered for a moment and then sprang forward and snatched the envelope off my desk.

She stood bolt upright, her eyes locked on mine, her voice low; controlled with obvious effort, "What the hell is Sean doing writing to you?!"

I couldn't tell who she was angry with: Sean, me, or both of us. All I knew was she was angry, very angry.

The time had been far too short for me to formulate a plan for dealing with the letter and information it held. I got up, walked around my desk, holding Vic's glare the whole way. When I rounded the front corner, I stopped and hitched my right hip on the front of my desk, and handed her the letter. My thinking of the moment was she couldn't get much angrier and maybe she could solve my problem of trying to figure out how to handle the information. Her glare tightened sharply on my eyes before she looked at the page.

Vic ripped the page from my hand and stalked away from me as she started to read. She paced as she read, expletives sparking from her lips as her eyes tracked through the words. Her pace slowed and the expletives faded as she turned from me once again. When Vic reached the table near the private entrance she failed to turn back around in her pacing. She stalled out at the table; dropping the page and both hands on the tabletop and hanging her head over all three.

I watched her upper back raise and lower as she took one deep breath after another, over and over. I waited and gave her the time she needed to regain control of her temper. When her breathing had returned to normal and I thought she was making significant progress in calming down; I risked speaking, "Vic…"

**BAM! **


	2. Imparting Information

**Author's note (and apology) I honestly did not even think of the pervious chapter as being a cliffhanger, I just broke the story up where it seemed logical. Please know I am very grateful for the generally lighthearted way in which you all took the unintended cliffhanger (As means of an apology I am posting this chapter earlier that I usually post them). One thing about it I know my readers are awake and paying attention. :) Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to read and review or PM. Fair warning this chapter is tiny bit cliffhangerish - in a question being asked that doesn't get and answer until tomorrow in the final chapter. **

**Imparting Information**

The sound ricocheted around the office and through my body. My only thought was 'Too soon.' I had spoken too soon.

Vic had slammed her fist down on to the tabletop, ramming the table against the wall; replicating a gun shot. Ruby knocked once and cracked the door open a tiny bit. I hazarded a quick look in her direction and then my eyes were drawn right back to Vic. I knew the instant Ruby realized it had not been a gunshot and we were both unharmed she would retreat, she did; the quiet click of the closing door confirmed it.

Even though her anger had not been abated I stood and eased my way over to stand behind her. As soon as I felt the heat emanating from her body I stopped, without touching her I waited for her to feel the heat of me and register the fact I was standing there. Vic's breathing became deeper and more pronounced again but I did not back away. If she was angry with me I would face it. If she wasn't angry with me, I knew she wouldn't take it out on me.

Through no conscious thought my mouth opened and I heard myself breathe, "Vic?" in the gentlest of whispers.

The speed at which she spun herself into my chest was equivalent to a body blow. Air rushed from my lungs and I staggered back a step. My arms came up around her in unison with my feet reestablishing their footing. Vic made no sound as her tears spread a warm dampness into the front of my shirt. They almost burned, I thought, like angry tears. My arms held her firmly, without motion, as her fingers dug into the fabric of my shirt and to a small degree into the skin of my lower back. How long we stood like that I'm not sure. All I remember is being determined to let her speak or move first.

Sometime later Vic shifted her head slightly and huffed, "Damn him!" Then she fell still and quiet again.

She said something against my shirt that I didn't make out and then I thought I heard her say my name I looked down and tilting my head closer to her I whispered, "What?"

"Damn him, Walt, just damn him!"

"Yeah." I was sure we were damning Sean for different reasons but I wanted to show her we were in agreement. As I thought 'Damn Sean for making Vic so angry, for hurting her yet again', she let out a long heavy sigh and lifted her head so our eyes met. The fire that blazed in her eyes caused a color combination in them I had never seen before. She was angry and hurt but there seemed to be some confusion and vulnerability there as well. I waited for her to have the first words and show me where our conversation was going to go.

"Shit, Walt! Why can't he just leave me alone? I mean we're divorced right? Where does he get off still trying to tell me what to do?"

I looked at her and said the only thing I could think of, "I'm sorry Vic."

The words dripped from her mouth almost like venom, "Walt, he had no business telling you any of that. None at all."

"Nope." I verbally agreed with her but my mind called that agreement into question 'Why didn't he have a right to tell me what he told me?' and 'Why didn't I have a right to know?' Vic let her forehead drop back to my chest I could feel the heat of her breath as she exhaled and it pushed its way through the light weave of fabric. My hands began to stroke her back in a comforting motion, why exactly I wasn't sure, it just seemed like the right thing to do. After another considerable period of silence I took another chance and asked, "You want to talk about it?"

She huffed against my shirt again but said nothing for a moment or two.

"Vic are the things he said in that letter untrue?"

"No."

"Okay. Is it just that you didn't want me to know?"

She shook her head against my chest and then said, "It's not that… _I_ wanted to tell you."

I let her words settle around us for a moment and then asked, "Why didn't you?"

She let out a derisive snort and said, "Guess the opportunity just never presented itself."

"Right. …You know, I think there's more to this than the little bit Sean wrote. You think this might be opportunity enough?"

Vic raised her head from my chest and looked at me, studying my face, in what I thought was an attempt to read my mood or even my thoughts on the situation. Slowly disentangling her fingers from my shirt, she dropped her arms, stepped around me, and walked over to the couch where she sunk into the cushions, and stared back at me. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"

I gave her my most honest answer, "No I'm not. But I don't think I'm ready to just leave Sean's letter and do nothing about that either."

She nodded shortly "Okay."

I dragged the guest chair over near the couch and sat across from her, thinking it might give her a little more self-confidence to know she still had her personal space as a bit of insulation.

"I'm sorry, really I am. Walt, this shit was none of Sean's business and he really should have stayed out of it."

I kept all sternness from my voice and spoke to her in as even a tone as I could manage, "We've already established that we need to cover new ground."

"Walt, I, uhm, …" She faltered and then sighed, "I don't know where to start."

She stared at me and I decided to start our trek into the new territory but I couldn't think of anything else so I asked, "Why don't you tell be about the body bag?"

Vic looked away and hesitated a long moment before looking at me again, "Sean was right I was so afraid it was you and the longer it took to open the bag the more frightened I got. I was terrified. My total focus was on you, in that damn bag. I didn't hide any of my feelings at that point."

I nodded because I wasn't about to do anything to interrupt her.

"Shit! I knew I hurt him when I looked at him after I finally got the bag open and it wasn't you. I was so relieved that it wasn't you and he was so, so," she shrugged and looked past me to the far side of the office, "hurt. There's no other word for it. I hurt him by showing him something I hadn't even admitted to myself yet." She was silent a while and still hadn't looked back to me.

"Your feelings for me?"

A tense nod was her only reply.

I figured since Vic's feelings had been exposed when she was least expecting it the least I could do was share some of my thoughts from the same time frame. Without preamble I said, "I threatened to kill Gorski if anything had happened to you."

This garnered me a 'really?' look.

My turn to shrug, I held her gaze and confessed, "Not my proudest moment. But I meant it."

Again we fell silent.

I didn't want us to draw this out any more than we had too and thought getting the toughest question out of the way first might help, "Vic was Sean right? Would you have stayed in your marriage?"


	3. Post Script

**Post Script**

She stared at me; so long I thought maybe she wouldn't answer. Then she blinked a couple of times like her thoughts were falling into place, "Probably. My parents have been through all kinds of shit and they're still together. The only relationship I ended was with Ed. He was married and that, well that was just wrong. I ended it but he wouldn't let it go."

I nodded, I knew what had happened with Gorski and had guessed Sean was right about the other, because that's who Vic is, she is loyal and dedicated; strong values and determination. "I think Ed left because he realized just what my feelings for you were."

"What?"

"We had a lot of time to talk that day. He said he had been keeping an eye of you, wanted to make sure you were safe. Asked me why you had ended up with, and I quote 'Sean, Mr. Milquetoast' end quote."

I hadn't asked a question but Vic said, "Partly rebound, I think."

With a short nodded I concurred, "I told him Sean probably looked good to you after a couple of months with Gorski."

"That was part of it too. I couldn't have picked any one more polar opposite of Ed. You know?"

"Yep. So did Ed."

"Yeah."

"I know this is going to sound crazy but I really do think Sean cares about you and he just wants for you to be happy."

"If he cared so damn much why doesn't he just stay out of my life, out of my business, instead of going around and screwing everything up?"

I was instantly on alert, "Everything? What else has he screwed up?"

She replied flatly, "Nothing. This was enough!"

"Right." I thought about that and how angry she had been, it probably was everything to her in that moment. "Look I know you're angry at him but to be honest I'm kind of grateful to him." She looked at me like I had lost my mind. "I'm serious Vic. He's forced us to discuss this. Maybe he's right; I'm not as intelligent as people think."

"That part wasn't true."

"It isn't? It took me getting a letter from halfway around the globe, before I finally did something about addressing it. To be honest Vic, when I read the letter I didn't know what I was going to do about it or the information it held. When you knew Sean had sent it the decision was no longer mine to make."

"That has nothing to do with intelligence."

"No?"

"No."

"Okay then."

"Don't. Don't give me that damned 'okay then' crap. It doesn't have anything to do with intelligence Walt. If you're not ready for something you're not ready; that has nothing to do with how smart you are."

"Is that why you didn't tell me; you didn't think I was ready?"

"I knew you weren't ready. I'm not even sure that I'm ready yet. But I knew when you were ready you would say something and you hadn't so you weren't and you weren't so I didn't."

I know I blinked a few times; I had just the slightest bit of trouble keeping track of what she was saying.

"Dammit Walt, you don't talk much. So, okay. But you think a lot and I know you think before talking which means you also think before doing. You weren't talking and you weren't doing so you weren't ready."

I nodded, in a rather dumb fashion, to let her know I finally understood what she was saying, "Still it did take a letter from Sean to prod me into action."

"What action? We're barely talking about it."

"Well I kind of get the impression that you're stalling the talks."

"Is that why you haven't acted?"

I couldn't think of a reason why I hadn't acted since I got Sean's letter. I quit thinking and started acting. I reached out and took Vic's hand and stood, pulling her up with me. The moment I felt her fall against my chest I wrapped my hands on either side of her face and kissed her the way I had wanted to for a long damned time.

When I broke the kiss and looked into her eyes there was no doubt in mind; I had to kiss her again. For several long wonderful minutes we lost ourselves in each other, kissing and caressing; simply exploring and loving each other.

We came up for air, Vic had her arms draped over my shoulders and lowered her head to my shoulder before she whispered in a deep husky tone, "You know, talking is overrated."

I laughed at the unexpected comment and kissed her once more, this one fleeting, before hugging her closely to me and laughing again, "I've thought that for years."

Vic moaned lightly, "Don't remind me. I know that _all too well_," and then she chuckled softly against my neck, as we stood quietly holding each other for a while.

We simply held each other for a while, because we could; we were free to do so and we both know the other wanted too.

I didn't want to, but I had to ask, "What about the eye candy?"

Vic leaned back and cocked her head to one side as she blinked at me briefly, "What?"

I reminded her, "At the printers."

Her face hinted at an indulgence for my apparent slow-wittedness, "Oh. It's just that. A tasty looking guy is 'candy for the eyes'; _only_ the eyes, Walt. You, you're 'lip candy'." She leaned and kissed me sweetly then eased back a little before she added, "And hand candy," her hands snaked their way around me; one at my waist and the other up in my hair. She kissed me deeply and then sighed against my mouth, "You're _my_ candy."

The possessive tone in her voice and the feral glint in her eyes caused me to swallow hard as I thought for a brief moment that she just might consume me; lucky me. I thought absently how happy Ruby would be that I was working on lightening up.


End file.
